WW II History

The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese
(China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the
Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed was Lt. General
Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for the allies.

From John Arterbury. Lt. General Lesley McNair was killed by
accidental Allied bombing in France (ie: 'friendly fire').
Cite: Crusade by Rick Atkinson

Further, from Captain Robert A. Lynn, The highest ranking U.S. general
killed by enemy fire was Lt. General Simon Bolivar, Jr. He was junior to
Lt. General Lesley J. McNair, who was killed by U.S. bombers.

Rodney writes: "Highest-Ranking US Army officer killed in WW2 was
Simon Bolivar Buckner, a 4-star General. He certainly
outranked 3-star Lieutenant-General Lesley J. McNair, highest-ranking US Army officer
who died in the ETO. Anyway, being bumped off by your own side doesn't
really count; Buckner was actually killed by Japanese shellfire."

David M adds: "The USMC general killed on Okinawa was
Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. He was killed by artillery
shrapnel while observing from a forward position."

The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was
wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his
age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress.)

The item above was confirmed by a note from Richard Graham
of Canton, TX who says:
The story about Calvin Graham enlisted in the navy at the age of 12 is
a true story. he was a cousin of mine. The last time I talked to
Calvin was at a family reunion several years before his death.

At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was called CINCUS
(pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry
division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika."
All three were soon changed for PR purposes.

Dave Walker writes: Insignia of the 45th Infantry Division.
The 45th Infantry Division gained its nickname, "Thunderbird" division,
from the gold thunderbird. This Native American symbol became the
division's insignia in 1939. It replaced another previously used Native
American symbol, a swastika, that was withdrawn when it became closely
associated with the Nazi party.

More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While
completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%.

David M adds: "About the 30 mission tour that the Army Air Corps
flyers had to fly during WW2. It had been 25 missions until late in the war
when the tour was lengthened to 30. Flyers were "grandfathered" based on
their enlistment/draft dates."

Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5
tons of machine gun ammo. The US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter
planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.

Germany's power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One
estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had
instead been dropped on power plants German industry would have collapsed.

Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot.
You were either an ace or a target. For instance Japanese ace Hiroyoshi
Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo
plane.

It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with
a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. The tracers had
different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the
target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet the tracers instantly
told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was
the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell
you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted
to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate
nearly double and their loss rate go down.

When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee in
it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill
(who made a big show of it) and Gen Patton (who had himself photographed in
the act).

German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it
wasn't worth the effort.

According to Bill Douglas, the Me-264 was a prototype that never
went into production. Although the design was theoretically possible of
a mission to New York, there was never an operational aircraft to test
the theory. One reason for canceling the project was that Hitler felt
the isolated bombing of New York would do more to rile the US public
against Germany than any damage that was achieved.

According to Captain Robert A. Lynn, the Me-264 V-1 DID FLY on 23
December 1942 but the Me-264 V-2 was destroyed in an air raid.
The Ju-290 was the designated mid-air refueler for the Me-264. There
was no loss of effort on the Germans part but the project suffered
from the following: shortage of design and construction capacity,
personal rivalries between Goring, Milch, and Messerschmitt, and
shortage of production capacity. An air raid on 18 July 144 on
Memmingen destroyed the Me-254 V-1 as well as parts of the V-3
and V-4. (cite: Hitler's Miracle Weapons-Volume 1: The Luftwaffe and
Kriegsmarine by Friedrich George)

A number of air crewman died of farts (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an
unpressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%).

The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in
mid-air (they also sometimes cleared mine fields by marching over them).
"It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army" - Joseph Stalin

The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions and
11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations.
The German Army had paratroops that WERE capable of airborne operations. Go
figure.

When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought
ashore were 3 complete Coca-Cola bottling plants.

Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans.
They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured
by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were
captured by the Germans and forced to fight for The German Army until the US
Army captured them.

The U-120 was scuttled by her own crew on 2 May 1945 at
Bremerhaven, Germany during Operation REGENBOGEN. Info from Captain Robert
A. Lynn, Robert Bogash and uboat.net: U-120.

According to this thread,
it wasn't U-120 that was lost this way, it was
uboat.net: U-1206 (KL Karl-Adolf Schlitt),
though there were other issues involved too. The story and more details of
this incident and of U-boat toilets are included below.

The Graf Spee never sank. The scuttling attempt failed and the ship
was bought as scrap by the British. On board was Germany's newest radar
system.

The Graf Spee did sink when scuttled, but only in
waters less than 25 ft deep. It was not bought as scrap by the
British, and in fact lay in the silt in the River Plate estuary in Uruguay.
An effort is being made to raise her to turn her into a ship museum.
See "Salvage
Team Prepares to Raise WWII Ship"
for more details of her sinking and the recovery effort.
(Thanks to Lewis Perelman for the info)

One of Japan's methods of destroying tanks was to bury a very large
artillery shell with only the nose exposed. When a tank came near enough a
soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. "Lack of weapons is no excuse
for defeat." - LtGen Mutaguchi

Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian troops
stormed ashore at Kiska.
32 troops (28 Americans and 4 Canadian) were killed in the fire fight and
over 50 wounded. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.

From John Arterbury. Invasion of Kiska deaths were all due to friendly fire. The
correct numbers are 28 Americans dead and four Canadian dead. Cite:
Canadian Heroes - The Battle for Kiska.
Note: this article is fascinating, and says "It was the Battle of
Kiska that would lead Time magazine to create the acronym, JANFU
(joint army-navy foul-up)."

According to Captain Robert A. Lynn, PAO, Florida Guard, in addition to
the men KIA by friendly fire, 50 men were WIA from friendly fire
while another 130 suffered trench foot.

The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for the US
artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He
dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols
damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing.
Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. I don't know where they
put them since the MISS ME only had 2 seats.

Mark Anderson wrote: "In regards to the duel of two spotter aircraft
doing battle during the last days of WW2, Cornelius Ryan wrote of the
incident in his book
Last Battle.
While enroute to scout the area around Berlin Lts. Duane Francies
and William Martin, in the last "dogfight" between Americans and Germans in
WW2, took on a Fieseler "Storch" under pistolfire from their L-4 Cub, forced
the Storch to crash land and its two occupants to be captured by an American
troop convoy which had watched the action from below. The above account was
also verified to me by correspondence from Mr. Martin in 2003."

During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong British officers objected to
Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officer's mess. No enlisted
men allowed you know.

Nuclear physicist Niels Bohr was rescued in the nick of time from
German occupied Denmark. While Danish resistance fighters provided covering
fire he ran out the back door of his home stopping momentarily to grab a
beer bottle full of precious "Heavy Water." He finally reached England
still clutching the bottle. Which contained beer. I suppose some German
drank the Heavy Water.

General: According to John Arterbury, most of these factoids are similar to those in the book
Dirty Little Secrets of World War II.
I don't know which came first, the book or the emails, or how much actual
verification the author did of these factoids.

Further, from Captain Robert A. Lynn, PAO, Florida Guard,
The highest ranking U.S. general killed by enemy fire was Lt. General Simon
Bolivar, Jr. He was junior to Lt. General Lesley J. McNair, who was
killed by U.S. bombers.

Rodney writes: "Highest-Ranking US Army officer killed in WW2 was
Simon Bolivar Buckner, a 4-star General. He certainly
outranked 3-star Lieutenant-General Lesley J. McNair, highest-ranking US Army officer
who died in the ETO. Anyway, being bumped off by your own side doesn't
really count; Buckner was actually killed by Japanese shellfire." (sent 5/2006)

David M adds: "The USMC general killed on Okinawa was
Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. He was killed by artillery
shrapnel while observing from a forward position." (sent 5/2006)

I've also heard from the son of a B-24 pilot from the bombing mission
that accidently killed General McNair. He mentions that this mission was
portrayed on a History Channel "Military Blunders" episode, which matched
his father's story of the incident. (sent 4/2004)

#2: This item was confirmed by a note from Richard Graham
of Canton, TX who says:
The story about Calvin Graham enlisted in the navy at the age of 12 is
a true story. he was a cousin of mine. The last time I talked to
Calvin was at a family reunion several years before his death.

#3: Dave Walker writes: Insignia of the 45th Infantry Division.
The 45th Infantry Division gained its nickname, "Thunderbird" division,
from the gold thunderbird. This Native American symbol became the
division's insignia in 1939. It replaced another previously used Native
American symbol, a swastika, that was withdrawn when it became closely
associated with the Nazi party.

#4: David M adds: "About the 30 mission tour that the Army Air Corps
flyers had to fly during WW2. It had been 25 missions until late in the war
when the tour was lengthened to 30. Flyers were "grandfathered" based on
their enlistment/draft dates." (sent 5/2006)

#10: According to Bill Douglas, The Me-264 was a prototype that never
went into production. Although the design was theoretically possible of
a mission to New York, there was never an operational aircraft to test
the theory. One reason for canceling the project was that Hitler felt
the isolated bombing of New York would do more to rile the US public
against Germany than any damage that was achieved.

According to Captain Robert A. Lynn, PAO, Florida Guard,
the Me-264 V-1 DID FLY on 23 December 1942 but the Me-264 V-2 was destroyed
in an air raid. The Ju-290 was the designated mid-air refueler for the
Me-264. There was no loss of effort on the Germans part but the project
suffered from the following: shortage of design and construction capacity,
personal rivalries between Goring, Milch, and Messerschmitt, and shortage
of production capacity. An air raid on 18 July 144 on Memmingen destroyed
the Me-254 V-1 as well as parts of the V-3 and V-4.
(cite: Hitler's Miracle Weapons-Volume 1: The Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine
by Friedrich George)

#17: The U-120 was scuttled by her own crew on 2 May 1945 at
Bremerhaven, Germany during Operation REGENBOGEN. Info from Captain Robert
A. Lynn, Robert Bogash and
uboat.net: U-120.
(I don't yet know if any other U-boats were lost due to toilet problems)

According to this thread,
it wasn't U-120 that was lost this way it was the U-1206 (KL Karl-Adolf Schlitt).

Here is the story of the killer toilet:
"Every U-boat, except midget craft, had a toilet, with the larger
types even having two, but one of them was usually used as a
larder and therefore could not accommodate the crew until they
had passed the contents through the other one. All U-boats had a
so-called 'upper deck toilet' as men just urinated over the side.
Of course, this luxury could not be used when the boat was
submerged and once deeper than about 25m the interior toilet had
to be closed as well because the water pressure outside the boat
was too great to pump the contents out. This was hardly an
imposition at the beginning of the war, but longer dives became
the order of the day as the anti-U-boat measures became more
ferocious, with boats in the Mediterranean and in American waters
regularly remaining submerged for periods of 24 hours or so and
special, high-pressure thunder boxes had to be installed. After
all a functional 'head' could make all the difference between
total and partial concentration.

The operation of this high-pressure toilet proved to be so
difficult that men with a technical aptitude were specially
trained to learn the intricacies of the new weapon. There was a
delicate naval term for these men, and the term 'Toilet Graduate'
will probably suffice in English. At least one boat, U1206 (KL
Karl-Adolf Schlitt), was lost as a direct result of mishandling
this complicated 'thunder box'. Kptlt Schlitt tried the system
for himself but the LI sent a toilet graduate to help, and
somehow with two minds on the same job, the levers were pulled in
the wrong order and the commander's offering plus a thick jet of
salt water was squirted into their faces. Seeing what had
happened, the LI took the boat up to relieve the pressure, but
some of the inflowing water drained into the batteries below to
produce poisonous chlorine gases (chlorine is produced when salt
from sea water reacts with acid in the batteries) and eventually,
after an attack from aircraft, the boat had to be abandoned."

Gudmundur Helgason, of Uboat.net confirmed
this bit on the U-1206, saying "Yes, this is correct although it's a bit
simplified :) This device is really a very distant relative of a normal
toilet and quite complex :) The boat also had other problems before
(port-diesel) and so the commander decided to scuttle the boat outside
Aberdeen and save his men (3 died)." As a reference, he suggests:
the book. Hitler's U-boat War, vol II
by Clay Blairs.

#18: The Graf Spee did sink when scuttled, but only in
waters less than 25 ft deep. It was not bought as scrap by the British, and
in fact lay in the silt in the River Plate estuary in Uruguay.
An effort is being made to raise her to turn her into a ship museum.
See "Salvage Team Prepares to Raise WWII Ship"
for more details of her sinking and the recovery effort.
(Thanks to Lewis Perelman for the info)

#20: From John Arterbury. Invasion of Kiska deaths were all due to friendly fire. The
correct numbers are 28 Americans dead and four Canadian dead. Cite:
Canadian Heroes - The Battle for Kiska.
Note: this article is fascinating, and says "It was the Battle of
Kiska that would lead Time magazine to create the acronym, JANFU
(joint army-navy foul-up)."

According to Captain Robert A. Lynn, PAO, Florida Guard, in addition to
the men KIA by friendly fire, 50 men were WIA from friendly fire
while another 130 suffered trench foot.

#21: Mark Anderson wrote: "In regards to the duel of two spotter aircraft
doing battle during the last days of WW2, Cornelius Ryan wrote of the
incident in his book
Last Battle.
While enroute to scout the area around Berlin Lts. Duane Francies
and William Martin, in the last "dogfight" between Americans and Germans in
WW2, took on a Fieseler "Storch" under pistolfire from their L-4 Cub, forced
the Storch to crash land and its two occupants to be captured by an American
troop convoy which had watched the action from below. The above account was
also verified to me by correspondence from Mr. Martin in 2003."